Integration of HIV/AIDS activities with food and nutrition support in ...

Integrated Programme Strategy 19:
Support to community health volunteers engaged
in HIV/AIDS prevention activities or caring for PLWHA
and HIV/AIDS-affected families
Food and related resources can be considered a possible incentive to motivate, support
and reward community health volunteers engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention activities or in
caring for PLWHA. Volunteers may include community health workers, community social
workers, peer educators, drama groups, growth monitoring promoters, women’s groups,
TBAs, home-based care teams, and anti-AIDS and post-test club members. External
incentives should be phased out when sustainable community support becomes feasible,
and provisions should be sought from the outset to achieve such sustainability.
What does this integrated programme strategy aim to achieve?
Provision of incentives to community volunteers engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention
acknowledges, supports, rewards and motivates skilled volunteers for their often timeintensive
efforts (Photos 15 and 16). Health volunteers often cite the lack of incentives as
a reason for low or declining numbers of volunteers, particularly in resource-poor settings
where the pressure to earn food or income is considerable. Although activities should ideally be
initiated and conducted on a voluntary basis for as long as possible, the provision of incentives
often allows community-based HIV prevention activities to continue.
Provision of incentives to community volunteers engaged in caring for PLWHA and
AIDS-affected families acknowledges, supports, rewards and motivates skilled volunteers
for their often time-intensive efforts. With conflict and displacement, refugee communities
can suffer from social fragmentation and psychosocial trauma that can interfere with traditional
caretaking dynamics. Additionally, the heavy caretaking burden caused by AIDS puts considerable
strain on affected families, making it more important to support caretaking systems in the
community until the situation stabilizes. Community health volunteers can contribute enormously
to empowering AIDS-affected families with skills to maintain the health and prolong
the life of their sick member.
How would this integrated programme strategy be implemented?
Institutional collaboration and coordination. Health programme staff and social services
programme staff typically identify, train and supervise community health volunteers. If food
aid commodities are given to the volunteers as an incentive, food aid programme staff should
collaborate with health programme staff to monitor the volunteers’ activities and manage the
provision of food. If volunteers are rewarded with participation in community development
initiatives rather than food (e.g., income-generating activities), the community development
or social services staff managing those programmes should collaborate with health staff in the
same way.
Volunteers involved in providing health care and health/nutrition education to PLWHA –
particularly community health workers and home-based care team members – will typically be
supervised by government health staff or by the agency implementing the health programme.
Volunteers involved in providing psychosocial support to PLWHA – such as community social
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